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Rating: 
Summary: Another great sleeper
Review: I'd never heard of Mari Sandoz until the other person who reviewed Slocum House sent me a copy, along with the suggestion that the tome should be on my SYLT Guide for good western fiction. After reading it twice I'm still puzzled about why Sandoz isn't more well known, even though the book was written in 1937.Slocum House is one of the few works of fiction I've ever read that successfully portrays the nasty side of the power/wealth battle for the west. That battle and the results can be found easily enough in the nooks and crannies of actual history and autobiography. The Albert Fountain homicide in New Mexico, the various works gradually seeping out of the cracks about Mountain Meadows, Elfigo Baca, the Salt War and the Catron Gang and even the Pat Garrett homicide all portray a time in our history when county elections were a life and death matter. Until Mari Sandoz all that's mostly escaped the notice of fiction writers.
Rating:
Summary: Another great sleeper
Review: I'd never heard of Mari Sandoz until the other person who reviewed Slocum House sent me a copy, along with the suggestion that the tome should be on my SYLT Guide for good western fiction. After reading it twice I'm still puzzled about why Sandoz isn't more well known, even though the book was written in 1937. Slocum House is one of the few works of fiction I've ever read that successfully portrays the nasty side of the power/wealth battle for the west. That battle and the results can be found easily enough in the nooks and crannies of actual history and autobiography. The Albert Fountain homicide in New Mexico, the various works gradually seeping out of the cracks about Mountain Meadows, Elfigo Baca, the Salt War and the Catron Gang and even the Pat Garrett homicide all portray a time in our history when county elections were a life and death matter. Until Mari Sandoz all that's mostly escaped the notice of fiction writers.
Rating:
Summary: one of the truly great western novels!
Review: Slogum House should not be missed--it's certainly on a par with
Lonesome Dove. It's realistic and uncompromising--but don't look
for the sweep of Lonesome Dove, or the shootouts of most westerns.
The novel is about the Slogum family of Nebraska in the late 1800's
and up to the 1930's. Gulla Slogum rules the ranch--she's greedy
and unscrupulous--willing to prositute her daughters and encourage
her sons to rob and kill in order to expand her small empire. She
keeps a map, and slowly over the years is able to add new pieces
to the Slogum holdings. The sheriff and judge are kept on the
string with payoffs--both money and the sexual favors of two of
the daughters. There are no traditional shootouts--the sons
find things are much safer if they shoot someone in the back with
a rifle from a distance--why take chances? The husband, Ruedy, is well-meaning, but weak. The two youngest
children, Libby and Ward, are decent people. There are others
over the years who come and go--such as Butch, Gulla's sadistic
brother. This is a portrayal of frontier life at it's best and
it's worst--at a time when the indian fighting is past, and when
we think that things are civilized. Reudy and Libby and Ward
persevere--they turn out to be the strongest ones in the end. So--no cattle drives, no shootouts in front of a saloon. In fact,
almost all the scenes are at the ranch. It's a bleak, harsh, very
tough picture of rural Nebraska. The writing is excellent--there
are no parts that you find yourself hurrying through. I keep 3-4
copies--so that when I reread the book (about once a year) I can
find it easily.
Rating:
Summary: one of the truly great western novels!
Review: Slogum House should not be missed--it's certainly on a par with
Lonesome Dove. It's realistic and uncompromising--but don't look
for the sweep of Lonesome Dove, or the shootouts of most westerns.
The novel is about the Slogum family of Nebraska in the late 1800's
and up to the 1930's. Gulla Slogum rules the ranch--she's greedy
and unscrupulous--willing to prositute her daughters and encourage
her sons to rob and kill in order to expand her small empire. She
keeps a map, and slowly over the years is able to add new pieces
to the Slogum holdings. The sheriff and judge are kept on the
string with payoffs--both money and the sexual favors of two of
the daughters. There are no traditional shootouts--the sons
find things are much safer if they shoot someone in the back with
a rifle from a distance--why take chances? The husband, Ruedy, is well-meaning, but weak. The two youngest
children, Libby and Ward, are decent people. There are others
over the years who come and go--such as Butch, Gulla's sadistic
brother. This is a portrayal of frontier life at it's best and
it's worst--at a time when the indian fighting is past, and when
we think that things are civilized. Reudy and Libby and Ward
persevere--they turn out to be the strongest ones in the end. So--no cattle drives, no shootouts in front of a saloon. In fact,
almost all the scenes are at the ranch. It's a bleak, harsh, very
tough picture of rural Nebraska. The writing is excellent--there
are no parts that you find yourself hurrying through. I keep 3-4
copies--so that when I reread the book (about once a year) I can
find it easily.
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